Radical Salafi, Pesantren and Terrorism

Jamal Ma’mur Asmani

The three mainstream of pesantren’s science , tauhid, fiqh dan tasawuf (unity of God, Islamic jurisprudence and mysticism), suggest the community to perform good deed, love, give in for the sake of others, make others happy, help and cooperate, and avoid conflict, confrontation, intrigue, and other destructive thing. At this point Islam would be accepted on the earth sympathically. Not by sword, bomb or gun which leave the impact of cruelty, harshness and barbaric. Wasn’t Rasulullah Saw has never use sword whenever there is other wiser way?

This article was firstly published in Indonesian at 1/9/2003

The terms of “radical salafi” is taken from Azyumardi Azra’s terms on observing phenomenon of Islamic authentication movement sprouting in Indonesia. “Radical salafi” is a group orienting in enforcing and implementing “pure Islam”, “authentic Islam” practiced by the Prophet Saw and his companions. They are called as “radical salafi” since they tend to take the radical approach to reach their objective rather than the peaceful and persuasive one. This group’s growth started from the immigration of a large number of Hadramaut people into Indonesia, mainly since the 19th century. They formed enclaves in various cities in Indonesia; Petamburan and Kwitang (Batavia), Pekalongan, Surakarta, Surabaya, Pontianak, Palembang, and so on. (Republika, 25/10/2002).

Recently, this term gained momentum. The state apparatus claim pesantren (Religious boarding school) as nests of terrorism subsequent to the JW Marriot incident. The term of “radical salafi” is appropriate to illustrate the phenomena of Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, Amrozi, Ali Imron, Hambali, and so on. Those names appear into the world due to their amazing activities, using violence to achieve their goal. Every means should be done in order to enforce Allah’s words on the earth. The opponent of “khilafah”, “Allah’s law”, and “syariat” are infidels and should be eliminated. They refer to Hadits (prophetic tradition) “Man ra-a minkum munkaran falyughayyirhu biyadihi wa-in lam yastathi’ fabilisanihi wa-in lam yastathi’ fabiqolbih, wazalika adl’aful iman”; anyone who sees (religious) disavowal, should change it by violence, otherwise by diplomatic way, otherwise by heart.

Based on this Hadits’ text, they perform a set of activity and cleansing movement of whatever the consider as “wrongdoing” (ma’ashi), “sin” (zunub), “disavowal” (munkar), “despicable” (fakhsya’), “hypocrisy” (nifaq), and any kind of “forbidden deed” (muharramat). Those terms are wide in meaning, including the whole life’s aspect, especially the public aspect. Currently, we view all around us various illicit sex, body exploitation, transparent commercials (all commercials show female sensitive organs), gambling, drug use. And coincidentally the restaurant, nightclubs and other amusement places serve this sort of thing fully and are publicly visited by tourists. Automatically, that sort of place is susceptible for threats, bombings, shootings, sweepings etc that are included in terrorism.

To this group, democracy is absurd, and it is a western device to simplify the expansion of global capitalism which eventually weakens the Muslim community’s position and bargaining power. Up to now, Muslims are identical to the marginal and oppressed being the target of Zionist-imperialism with a US locomotive. Hence, there is no other way except through violence and optimalizing all Islamic power to compete the opponent’s supremacy in accordance to the text of the Hadits.

Here, the genuine character of this group is analyzing turast (doctrine and tradition) of text literally and textually, and observe it as sacred, eternal, magic and final. This view triggers their extreme, radical, fanatic, uncompromising, exclusive and fundamentalist behavior. What is written in the text is the pure truth and it is an obligation to struggle for it until the end of life.

The matter is this: is it true that this sort of character becomes the mainstream of pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Indonesia? Are pesantren nets of terrorism as charged by the apparatus? Here is the urgency of identification and categorization of pesantren. Would all pesantren be claimed as a net of terrorism or is it only some of them?

As long as the establishment of this state, we recognize pesantren as the educative institution established by ulemas (muslim intellectuals) to educate, supervise and empower santri (student) and society in religious, social, cultural and cultural-political fields. The role of ulema in delivering this state into the gate of independence is undoubted, and it is noted in the golden ink of the nation’s struggle.

Factual-empirically, the majority of pesantren are gathered under one big organization; NU (Nahdlatul Ulama) and MD (Muhammadiyah). Therefore, in order to know what is the style and color of pesantren, we may observe them trough characteristic of the exponent of pesantren. For example, KH. MA. Sahal Mahfudz (representing the head of NU/ Ra’is Am Syuriyah NU) dan Prof. Dr. Ahmad Syafi’I Ma’arif (Head of PP Muhammadiah). Public has been familiar to their character and commitment toward the matters of community and nation. Of course, their deeds within the aspect of education, social, culture, economic and politic were actualized into the deep understanding toward doctrine and norms within the affluent scientific literature of each organization. NU has classical source, while Muhammadiyah has academic-contemporary notion about Alqur’an and Hadits. Recently, both organizations were in the same platform, to show Islam as rahmatan li-alamin (blessing upon the universe) by characteristic bellow; infitah (inclusive), tawasut (moderate), tasamuh (tolerant), i’tidal (straight), musawah (equality), and maslahah (welfare). Their objective is the creation of justice [adalah}, Law supremacy (tahqiqul hukmi), dan people’s welfare (al-mashalih al-ra’iyah) within the frame of good governance. All are born from their understanding toward text within Qur’an, Hadits and ulema’s sources in the field of theology, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and tasawwuf (mysticism) which are contextual, methodological, and historical. The result of NU congress at Cipasung 1992 and Muhammadiyah congress at 2001 (recognized as cultural ijtihad) indicate this.

Observing this factual reality, it is impossible for NU and Muhammadiyah’s pesantren to perform an extreme, radical, and fundamental action, since this kind of act would bury Islamic prophetic ideals as religion of blessing (rahmah), to be religion of torture (niqmah) and hell (naar). They want to show Islam which is humanist, persuasive, dynamic and progressive.

The three mainstream of pesantren’s science , tauhid, fiqh dan tasawuf (unity of God, Islamic jurisprudence and mysticism), suggest the community to perform good deed, love, give in for the sake of others, make others happy, help and cooperate, and avoid conflict, confrontation, intrigue, and other destructive thing. At this point Islam would be accepted on the earth sympathically. Not by sword, bomb or gun which leave the impact of cruelty, harshness and barbaric. Wasn’t Rasulullah Saw has never use sword whenever there is other wiser way?

Here we can conclude that the group born in pesantren which is well-known as “radical salafi” is the minority out of the mainstream pesantren. This group had a clear activity, movement and political target, and had international network with specific means and characters and it had a wide access financially as well. These characteristics could not be found in general pesantren of Indonesia. Therefore, it is unwise when people generalize and say that all pesantren can be claimed as the nest of terrorism.

(Translated by Lanny Octavia, edited by Jonathan Zilberg)

http://islamlib.com/en/article/radical-salafi-pesantren-and-terrorism/